For a short time today I was French!
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
United States
April 19, 2016 7:54am CST
I speak English (with a little 'southern' thrown in!). Yes, I took Spanish and French in High School back in the dark ages. What I can say in either language beyond 'hello' or 'goodbye' is very limited. But, this morning someone assumed I could read and speak French.
I got on Facebook first thing, as usual, and came across recent photos of our friends from New York who are buying a home in Tennessee. As I clicked on the photo to leave a comment all the words on Facebook turned to French. Seriously, I have no clue what I did. Everything was in French.
I hit what I assumed was the help button but couldn't read the options. I closed my browser hoping it would all go away when I opened it again - wrong. Ten minutes in to it and trying whatever I thought might work I spotted a little box that asked, "English?" so I jumped on it and by some small miracle English returned and all is well in the universe.
Has this ever happened to you? Maybe I should brush up on my French just in case it happens again!
Photo: pixabay.com/en/french-flag-france-flag-nation-1064395/
20 people like this
20 responses
@gudheart (12659)
•
19 Apr 16
@AbbyGreenhill LOL sounds like a funny experience though...after the initial shock.
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
19 Apr 16
Stop being so boring and stick to using French. Using English is far too easy and no challenge whatsoever.
This reminds me of a time that I left my mobile on my desk at work and someone changed the language to Polish. I finally managed to reset it to English, but it was not easy as I was trying to navigate screens that I could not read.
2 people like this
@Asylum (47893)
• Manchester, England
19 Apr 16
@AbbyGreenhill Trying to navigate mobile phone settings in Polish us certainly not my idea of simple.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
@Asylum I'd rather deal with the phone in Polish and not my x-'s family!
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
I like boring LOL! Now Polish I can understand some - My first husband was Polish so I hear lots of words, most I can't repeat.
3 people like this
@GardenGerty (157552)
• United States
19 Apr 16
I had another friend who experienced this last week. I do not think it was French for her, but it was a language she does not speak.
2 people like this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
Well, I'm glad to hear it wasn't just me! LOL...I assume your friend got her back to English!?
@rosekiss (30380)
• Eugene, Oregon
19 Apr 16
I bet that was funny, you trying to read, and not understanding a word.
I must say that it has never happened to me, and if it would have, I would have thought that my laptop turned out to be French. I can't speak it or write it either, so it better stay English if it knows what is good for it.
I must say that it has never happened to me, and if it would have, I would have thought that my laptop turned out to be French. I can't speak it or write it either, so it better stay English if it knows what is good for it.1 person likes this
@rosekiss (30380)
• Eugene, Oregon
20 Apr 16
@AbbyGreenhill It is really good though, when we can laugh at ourselves, for silly things that we do. I have done some silly things too, believe me, but I have been able to laugh about it too.
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
20 Apr 16
I got a big laugh out of it, I'm just glad it's over and done now.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
Where is it that you switch the language, not that I want to do so, I just want to avoid that area!
@MALUSE (69413)
• Germany
19 Apr 16
@AbbyGreenhill I'm German. That means I write texts in German. When I'm on myLot, I read and write English. I may interrupt this and write a letter in German. Before I fall asleep at night, I always read some chapters of an English book and so on.
@miniam (9154)
• Bern, Switzerland
19 Apr 16
I live just 10 minutes away from where they officially speak french( Switzerland has 3 national languages or 4 depending on who you ask)
But my French is so terrible i try never to go to the French side of Switzerland.Same with my Italian,apart from hello and a few Italian words,l could not hold conversation in Italian.
Glad you figured it out.
How would it be if you messed up your whole computer and everything came in French?
1 person likes this
@miniam (9154)
• Bern, Switzerland
19 Apr 16
@AbbyGreenhill
Lol or you`ll figure out how to speak french fast
@changjiangzhibin89 (16533)
• China
20 Apr 16
It haven't happened to me.But then ,I have no FaceBook account . I doubt if you hit something by chance.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
20 Apr 16
I am pretty sure I hit something by accident...it just doesn't happen by itself I don't think LOL
1 person likes this
@LeaPea2417 (36438)
• Toccoa, Georgia
19 Apr 16
No, it hasn't happened to me, but it happened to one of my Facebook friends and she was as confused as you were and asking for help the other day.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
I'm just glad I got it fixed fast...all these years on FB and that was a first.
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
20 Apr 16
I know I did something by accident...held down a key and pressed something - I can laugh about it now.
@LadyDuck (458006)
• Switzerland
19 Apr 16
Most of the time I get everything in German (
), this is the most spoken language in Switzerland. I am very upset, I perfectly speak the other two (Italian and French), but I get plenty of pages in German. I do not know how many time I tried to solve this problem... I think I have to go back to study German.
), this is the most spoken language in Switzerland. I am very upset, I perfectly speak the other two (Italian and French), but I get plenty of pages in German. I do not know how many time I tried to solve this problem... I think I have to go back to study German.1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (458006)
• Switzerland
20 Apr 16
@AbbyGreenhill I am so upset when I receive messages in German, I have set my browser to English, I believe that people should stick to your browser language.
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
I am good just with one language and southern...that's harder to understand an a foreign language at times.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
I could have gotten you to translate for me!
1 person likes this
@Inlemay (17714)
• South Africa
19 Apr 16
@AbbyGreenhill Oh the FB - sure ha ha ha with my twenty word vocabulary of French I think it might have been a fiasco
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29823)
• Momence, Illinois
19 Apr 16
wow didn't know facebook would do that. Glad you figured it out. It would be difficult to know what was going on
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
It was confusing for sure - I thought I was seeing things at first!
1 person likes this
@fishtiger58 (29823)
• Momence, Illinois
19 Apr 16
@AbbyGreenhill I bet you did.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
20 Apr 16
I hope it doesn't happen to you!
1 person likes this
@LindaCPearson (2241)
• United States
19 Apr 16
This hasn't happened to me but I have a few FB friends that said they had the same problem. I have no idea how they resolved it.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
Accidents happen and that's how I fixed it LOL!
1 person likes this
.@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
For you I guess it isn't! LOL! Maybe I'll catch up to you next time FB throws me a curve!
1 person likes this
@Jessicalynnt (50525)
• Centralia, Missouri
19 Apr 16
I didnt know one could flip languages so easily in facebook!
@IreneVincent (15962)
• United States
19 Apr 16
No, I haven't had that happen yet. Like you, I know a spattering of French and Spanish and some greetings in other languages.
1 person likes this
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
You aren't from New Jersey are you? My sister went to school with an Alice Henry.
@JudyEv (325755)
• Rockingham, Australia
19 Apr 16
Haha. I wonder what went wrong? But it's good that the site decided to help you out.
@AbbyGreenhill (45496)
• United States
19 Apr 16
You got that right, I was going to go to the library to get a French-English dictionary!
1 person likes this
